When the ancient Polynesians invented surfing, they often used a paddle to help them navigate. Fast-forward a few millennia, and Stand-Up Paddleboarding, or SUP, finds itself trendy again. Part of its increasing popularity is that standing upright allows surfers to spot waves more easily and thus catch more of them, multiplying the fun factor. Paddling back to the wave becomes less of a strain as well. The ability to cruise along on flat inland water, surveying the sights, is another advantage. Finally, its a good core workout. If youre sold on the idea, schedule an intro SUP lesson, free with board and paddle rental, and you may find yourself riding the waves like a Polynesian king.More

Many of us remember coming home from our elementary schools with freshly glazed pinchpots, cups, or whatever else our young imaginations could conjure up. Saturday mornings at the Randall Museum can bring that memory back, or create a new one for the youngsters. Ceramics make great gifts — especially on Mothers' and Fathers' Day. Hop on board for the Randall's once-weekly class, and for $6 and two weeks to have your work fired and glazed, you'll have all the materials you need.More

Friday, January 27, 2012

By his own admission, David Best isn't all that great of a singer. As the voice of the Brighton, England-based four-piece Fujiya & Miyagi, Best provides a careful, static presence that works in conjunction with his band's Krautrock-indebted post-punk. He eschews wild notes or anything complicated, and instead uses a spry whisper.

This approach doesn't easily lend itself to engaging listening, so to make up for his lack of vocal pizzazz, Best pens bizarre but fascinating lyrics that rely on non-sequiturs and strange turns of phrase. When he first began putting together his own words, he took cues from Captain Beefheart, The Fall, and Pavement -- all bands whose lyricists wrote "words that weren't necessarily obvious when you heard them" -- and that inspiration remains evident today. "I liked words that weren't necessarily obvious when you heard them. There are so many records on the radio where you can hear it the first time and you can guess the next rhyme," Best says. "Often, like with Bryan Adams or something, you knew that if he was walking down the street, he would look at his feet, and it was just like, 'Ah, geez.'"

In anticipation of Fujiya & Miyagi's date at The Independent this Monday, Jan. 30, alongside The Frail, we pinned Best down to talk about four of his more evocative lyrical forays.

What prompted you to put the phrase "Vanilla, strawberry, Knickerbocker glory" together?

Well, the song's about Lena Zavaroni, who was this childhood star. She was Scottish, but she was a big star in UK television when I was a kid, so the ice cream reference is a reference to my memory of my childhood. The rest of the song kind of talks about her life coming down from Scotland. She was from a remote place in Scotland where they didn't have traffic lights or things like that. But also I think that "Vanilla, strawberry" initially -- you know MF Doom? I think it's on Rhymes Like Dimes, he goes, "vanilla, strawberry, chocolate wafers" or something like that, and I always thought it was funny, so I remembered it, and I think that might have been the link. [Note: The lyric is actually from "Kookies" off Mm.. Food: "I hope wanna hit people's cookies with a fried pack/That's three different flavors/Chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry wafers."] Especially at that time, a lot of our songs were images of childhood put into other contexts.

When you were coming up with "Knickerbocker," did you set out to write a song about Lena or were you inspired at one moment or what?

Yeah, I was just thinking about her. Me and my sister used to really like her. Maybe we had a conversation or something, and then I just sat down and wrote it, but it didn't have the "Vanilla, strawberry, Knickerbocker glory" bit; it was just the whole other chunk of words, which kind of gets swamped by the repetition of the ice cream [name]. We've got a few songs that are specifically about people. There's one about [English singer-songwriter] Vivian Stanshall called "Sore Thumb" on Lightbulbs, and there's one about Bobby Fischer, the chess player, on Lightbulbs as well. I quite like it sometimes. It kind of frees you up. I don't always like it when words are all about 'me' or 'I.' It's always nice to be yourself from another person's point of view.

Do those three subjects you've mentioned have something in common?

No, not really. Vivian Stanshall is a big hero of mine, and he had a pretty interesting life. Bobby Fischer -- I think I read an article, and I didn't know an awful lot about him. It's just nice to have different subject matters and maybe I thought that if someone liked Fujiya & Miyagi and they hadn't heard Vivian Stanshall, they might want to check him out if they knew we wrote a song about him. Maybe that's a bit over-egging it, but it would be nice if that happened.

Words-wise, I know exactly what that's about, and that song makes total sense to me. I can picture that song like there's a map of my route to school when I was a kid. You'd see the pornography magazines in the bushes that freak you out when you're, like, eight, and you pass the playground. It's kind of abstract, but when I think of those words, I can picture those roads I haven't been to for a long time. But also, that again is the same thing with [when] you asked me about "Vanilla, strawberry" and "Knickerbocker." [With] "Ankle Injures," one of my favorite footballers had an ankle injury and he left my team to go somewhere else because he couldn't do it anymore, so that was like a memory kind of stuck in there. It's kind of fragmented, but it does mean something to me.

Who was the player and who did he play for?

His name was David Rocastle and he played for Arsenal. They're my team.

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Sub Pop recording artists 'clipping.' brought their brand of noise-driven experimental hip hop to the closing night of 2016's San Francisco Electronic Music Fest this past Sunday. The packed Brava Theater hosted an initially seated crowd that ended the night jumping and dancing against the front of the stage. The trio performed a set focused on their recently released Sci-Fi Horror concept album, 'Splendor & Misery', then delved into their dancier and more aggressive back catalogue, and recent single 'Wriggle'.
Opening performances included local experimental electronic duo 'Tujurikkuja' and computer music artist 'Madalyn Merkey.'"